Battle of the Kill Switch
The Battle of the Kill Switch was fought between the US Senate and the US People beginning June 19, 2010 and ending with the smash-down (not shoot-down, smash-down) of the bill sometime later that year. Joe Lieberman would go on to help develop the bill that would begin the Second Battle of SOPA/PIPA, while lounging in the Carribbean mansion he bought with bribe money and drinking pina coladas. What the Bill Would Have Done The bill focused on the creation of the Office of Cyberspace Policy, a domestic, government-funded terrorist organization dedicated to the oppression of the very free thought that formed the basis of the United States of America. This is colloquially known as the Thought Police. It also would have given the President executive control over the kill switch of the Internet and what little freedom we have left given the drones wheeling throguh the skies over our heads every moment of every day. Section 249 of the bill states that "the President may issue a declaration of a national cyber emergency to covered critical infrastructure" in which case a response plan will be implemented. This plan shall consist of "measures or actions necessary to preserve the reliable operation, and mitigate or remediate the consequences of the potential disruption, of covered critical infrastructure". Said measures should "represent the least disruptive means feasible to the operations of the covered critical infrastructure" and "shall cease to have effect not later than 30 days after the date on which the President issued the declaration of a national cyber emergency" unless the President seeks to extend them, with the approval of the Director of the Office of Cyberspace Policy established by the bill. In less glorified terms, the President can go set up a dictatorship whenever he feels like it, in the same style as Chancellor Palpatine establishing the Galactic Empire in Star Wars. There is only one flaw: We have nowhere to run, unlike the factions in Star Wars that are against the Empire, which is why we must crush this thing in the bud. Shamelessness On CNN's State of the Union, Lieberman had the audacity to claim that "it is a fact that cyber warfare is going on in some sense right now." and "a cyber attack on America could do as much or more damage ... by incapacitating our banks, our communications, our finance, our transportation, as a conventional war attack". Yes, cyber warfare is going on, as the government censors and arrests bloggers for anti-governmental materials, under the label of "domestice terrorist". According to the definition, they are using unauthorized methods against the government, therefore, that is terrorism. It is also known as democracy, where the government does not need to okay EVERY DAMNED THING. Unfortunately, the fact that Joe Lieberman is still in office as of the beginning of 2012 proves that real democracy died a long, long time ago. It shall return. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but rest assured, the Peoples of the Free World and the Resistance will see that it returns one day.